


sliced watermelon

by fleuriste



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (sort of?), Beach Trip, Fukurodani High School, Gen, Owls, Picnic, Summer, very very lowkey bokuaka
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 15:10:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13274085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleuriste/pseuds/fleuriste
Summary: Akaashi looked over at where Bokuto was making his fifth lap. “I don't think much practice is going on,” he stated dryly. “Usually when Bokuto-san and Shirofuku-san get into these situations, it's best to wait it out.”“Two yakisoba buns says Shirofuku gets him to pay up before practice ends,” Komi said.“Not if he bribes her with chocolate to pay her back later again,” Sarukui noted.Komi scoffed. “It’s too hot to have chocolate. It'd be a melted mess.”“Well, anything would work, we all know Shirofuku eats anything…”A melted mess… Kaori had glimpsed a schoolbag abandoned right outside the clubroom, the zipper open.“Hey, Suzumeda,” Konoha said, turning to her. “Who’s your money on?”“Ants,” she gasped, and sprinted out the door.——-Summer with the Fukurodani Volleyball Club can be a bit much, but it’s nothing Kaori Suzumeda can’t handle.Or at least, that’s what she thought.





	sliced watermelon

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was my contribution for the HQ Managers Zine run on tumblr! Sales for printed copies are over, unfortunately, but you can still buy the digital copy full of wonderful art and fic of our favorite HQ managers and support GirlUp here: https://jercydee.itch.io/hqmanagerzine2017

Summer at Fukurodani Academy meant a lot of things. Summer meant extra practice, training camps with people just as wild as Bokuto-san, the scrape of sneakers on the gym floors even louder than usual. It meant extra water bottles and fresh fruit and meat for outdoor barbecues. 

Apparently summer meant a little bit more of everything, really, but Kaori Suzumeda didn't think she'd mind. She had siblings, so she was used to tantrums and yelling and constant excitement, and when it came to Fukurodani (Bokuto-san, specifically), there was no shortage of any of those things.

Still, when Shirofuku-senpai said “Fukurodani summers are tough for us managers”, Kaori didn't exactly expect this kind of tough. Or that “us managers” sometimes meant only her.

For example, Bokuto-san was currently sprinting around the gym for the third time, trying to evade Shirofuku-senpai’s demands to pay her back the ¥3000 he owed. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but lugging the heavy water jug alone wasn't easy and she was approximately two seconds away from dropping the whole thing when Keiji Akaashi materialized out of nowhere to grab the other handle. 

“Th-thanks, Akaashi-senpai,” she wheezed, propping it near where the other boys were watching the conflict, riveted. “I got this. Shouldn't you guys be practicing?” 

Akaashi looked over at where Bokuto was making his fifth lap. “I don't think much practice is going on,” he stated dryly. “Usually when Bokuto-san and Shirofuku-san get into these situations, it's best to wait it out.” 

“Two yakisoba buns says Shirofuku gets him to pay up before practice ends,” Komi said. 

“Not if he bribes her with chocolate to pay her back later again,” Sarukui noted. 

Komi scoffed. “It’s too hot to have chocolate. It'd be a melted mess.”

“Well, anything would work, we all know Shirofuku eats anything…”

_A melted mess…_ Kaori had glimpsed a schoolbag abandoned right outside the clubroom, the zipper open. 

“Hey, Suzumeda,” Konoha said, turning to her. “Who’s your money on?” 

“Ants,” she gasped, and sprinted out the door. 

~~~~~

“Oh, Bokuto, I am _actually_ going to kill you.” Yukie Shirofuku declared when she followed a running Bokuto out the gym to find Kaori desperately trying to sweep a gigantic black mass of ants away. “Bokuto. _Bokuto._ ”

Bokuto squawked. “Oh no, I'm so sorry!” 

Yukie huffed. “Give Bokuto the broom, Kaori-chan. He can clean up his own mess.” 

Kaori waved them away. “It's okay, nothing I can't handle. Bokuto-san, you should get back to practice.” 

“Kaori…” 

“Shirofuku-senpai, really, it’s fine,” Kaori assured while Bokuto looked between them anxiously. 

Yukie hesitated a second more, then started shoving Bokuto back towards the gym. “Fine, but if this happens again… Bokuto, we’ll sacrifice you to the ants. Bless you, Kaori, you're a darling!” 

“Have fun, you guys!” Kaori waved, then fought back a full-bodied shudder as three ants crawled up her ankle. 

<<<<<>>>>>

After practice, Yukie approached her and handed her a bottle of Pocari Sweat. “Have I told you about the annual beach party?”

“Oh, thanks… and no?” _Beach party?_ Kaori wondered. _Sounds like fun… and a lot of work…_

“Oh, it's great!” Yukie enthused. “Every year at the end of summer we pack everyone into vans and drive to Kamakura for a day of sun. It's wonderful, but we're planning everything, which can be a pain.”

“Ah, well… that seems lovely,” she murmured. “Shall I get started on a food list then?”

“...Food?” Onaga piped up, overhearing. 

“Food?” Komi, Konoha, and Sarukui chimed in.

“Food,” Washio said, slightly interested. 

“FOOD!” Bokuto sprinted over. 

The food list took an hour to put together and when it was finally finished, Kaori calculated the costs and realized they were about ¥5000 over budget. Sighing, she went back and changed the fried food bucket count from eight to three, hoping Komi and Konoha wouldn't be _too_ upset. 

<<<<<>>>>>

“Suzumeda-chan?” Bokuto chirped one day while Kaori was attempting to arrange buses. 

“Yes, Bokuto-san?” she answered, looking up to find… almost the whole team clutching their school blazers, looking apologetically at her. 

“We have a bit of a situation,” Bokuto began. 

“It's all Bokuto’s fault!” Komi protested, and a squabble started right then and there.

“Technically it was Bokuto-san’s fault,” Akaashi said, appearing beside her. “The top button on Bokuto-san’s blazer fell off, so he convinced _them_ —” he gestured to Komi, Sarukui, Konoha, and Onaga, “—to also remove their buttons so it could be a race as to who can sew theirs back on quickest.” 

“...Except no one knows how to sew?”

“Except no one knows how to sew,” Akaashi agrees. 

Kaori rubbed her eyes, sighed internally, then clapped her hands. “Okay. Does anyone have thread?” 

They did not have thread. Onaga was sent off for thread and needles. 

“Sorry, Suzumeda-chan,” Komi said sheepishly. “We really did try on our own, but it was so hard. And we figured you would know how?”

Kaori sighed. “You know I'd help with anything, but isn't that a little sexist?”

“No, you're just better than us at everything,” Bokuto responded enthusiastically, arms waving like a windmill. “Except spiking. Probably. But everything else!” 

“We’d come to you for marriage advice,” Sarukui remarked. 

“We’d come to you if we needed help burying a body,” Konoha said, straight faced. 

“Please don't,” Kaori said, and looked down to hide her smile. 

<<<<<>>>>>

The rest of the summer passed by in a haze of long practices and sliced watermelon, and the end-of-summer beach trip was also finally all set. She and Yukie had worked tirelessly for weeks to ensure adequate transportation, enough food to feed a horde of hungry teenage boys (and Yukie), and everything needed for a bonfire. 

But two days before the trip, Kaori found herself dozing off on the bleachers, utterly exhausted. Sure, she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, but did that really warrant this condition? Resting her face against her clipboard, she wished it was a fluffy pillow instead.

“Kaori-chan, you okay?” Yukie called, jogging over. 

Kaori sneezed, then nodded vehemently. “Mm-hm. Super okay.” 

Looking concerned, Yukie felt her forehead. “Are you sure? Your temperature’s fine, but…”

“I'm good!” she insisted, then sneezed again. Yukie frowned. 

The day before the trip, Coach Yamiji was halfway through his speech of “don’t-injure-yourselves-playing-beach-volleyball-and-end-up-not-being-able-to-play-actual-volleyball-Bokuto-I’m-looking-at-you” when Kaori launched into a small coughing fit that left the whole team staring at her with worried faces. 

“Suzumeda, are you okay?” asked Akaashi.

“Yes! Fine!” Kaori exclaimed, throwing up a thumbs up, then ran out in case she accidentally coughed out a lung on the shiny gym floor. 

The morning of the trip, Kaori woke, tried to get up, and yelped when her legs turned to jelly and sent her sprawling to the ground instead. Ten minutes later, she sighed in defeat and called Yukie. 

_“Kaori-chan?”_

“Hi, Shirofuku-senpai,” she croaked, “I don't think I can come today.”

_“What?”_

“I think I have a cold. And a fever. I won't be able to help much like this.” 

_“Kao-chan, this isn't— Komi, put that down right now— about you helping, it's about you having fun! You know what, hold on—”_ The line went dead. 

Kaori sighed. It was just her luck to get sick on the one day she'd looked forward to all summer. _Maybe I deserved it,_ she thought. _Maybe I did something terrible to someone without noticing, and this is my punishment. Maybe I—_

The doorbell rang. She heard her mother answer it, and then— “Kaori, it's for you!”

“What? Who is it?” 

“The Fukurodani boys’ volleyball club,” her mother called back.

Kaori fell off her bed.

A few moments later, Yukie poked her head in her room. “Get up, Kao-chan! We're going to Kamakura!” 

“I can't,” Kaori protested weakly. 

“Yes, you can, and you are,” she insisted. “Get dressed and don't worry about your cold, we have provisions!”

“Provisions” turned out to be cold medicine, two thermoses of hot sencha, and seven blankets, which were presented to Kaori as she crawled into Yukie’s car. 

“Suzumeda-chan!” Bokuto hollered delightedly from the backseat, and Kaori offered a feeble peace sign.

The ride to Kamakura was… nice. Bokuto and Komi argued quietly about song choices while Kaori napped periodically, Akaashi refilled her thermos, and Yukie checked her temperature during traffic jams. When they finally arrived, golden sand stretching on for miles with a brilliant blue sea, the other half of the team who had ridden with Konoha attempted to carry Kaori out of the car on a makeshift towel kago until she blatantly refused.

Despite the chill, the salty sea air cleared her head and lifted her spirits. And although they attempted to be inconspicuous, Kaori noticed that at least one person always stayed by her side under the beach umbrella while the others were off having fun. 

So during the bonfire, Kaori smiled sheepishly and piped up, “Thank you for bringing me along even though I was a massive inconvenience.”

Everyone looked at her, horrified. 

“Massive inconvenience?” Sarukui and Konoha echoed. 

Komi shook his head viciously. “Suzumeda-chan, you and Shirofuku do _everything_ for us! There'd be no beach trip without you!”

Eyebrows raised, Akaashi said, “We like spending time with you too, you know.” Murmurs of assent. 

With this, Yukie threw an arm around her and raised an onigiri in the air. “To Kaori, who's way too good for us!” 

“Hey, hey, hey!” Bokuto agreed, and the team joined in. 

Kaori’s face warmed from the fire, her slight fever, and the feeling of being loved and loving in return. And as the sun set slowly over the sea, she thought again of how lucky she was to have Fukurodani and concluded that choosing to be a manager was the best decision of her life.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and kudos keep this starving writer alive >.< Thanks for reading!


End file.
